Drive By Hacking

[casper3699]

I didnt find this posted anywhere but I thought it was an interesting article if you have wireless networks.

here is the source http://www.vnunet.com/News/1132669
IBM tackles drive-by hacking
By Nick Farrell [17-06-2002]
Big Blue claims software turns servers into sniffers
IBM has developed software which it claims can effectively prevent drive-by hacking.
Software developed by IBM Research in the US apparently turns servers into wireless auditing sniffers that alert administrators if a network has misconfigured wireless access points.

The software sits on laptops and PCs, analysing traffic on an internal 802.11 wireless network and sending data to a centralised server, the company said.

The Distributed Wireless Security Auditor runs on the Linux operating system and will be commercially available later this year. A version for Windows is being developed.

An early version, introduced last year, ran on Linux on personal digital assistants. The new version includes the self-sensor and self-diagnosis features.

Big Blue has plans to pre-load the software onto business versions of its ThinkPad laptops, which are equipped with an 802.11 wireless network capability.

Peter Williams, of Silicon Valley analyst DataWatch, said that if the software works, it could solve about 80 per cent of the problems of drive-by hacking.

"At the moment there are too many users setting up wireless systems within their office that are insecure. These are very easy for hackers to access using reasonably good scanners," he said.

However, Williams added that knowing that wireless networks nodes are secure is only part of the problem, as drive by hacks are often carried out by people who have the kit to take out such security anyway.

[Mallam]

yeah,
an intresting article.

Bingo!!

I really buy that,
casper3699>> A hacker is someone who has a passion for technology, someone who is possessed by a desire to figure out how things work."

Good one.
Bingo!!

[casper3699]

my quote was made by Kevin Mitnick

[fr0z3n]

haha, interesting. i find this one funny.

[Syber]

A hacker is someone who has a passion for technology, someone who is possessed by a desire to figure out how things work.

Yep.

[loadc]

Yeah-



Greg SHipleydid a great study of this in the Bay area over a couple of years and put out the results a bit ago, there's also a really nice signal amplifier designed out of a Pringle's can floating around out there somewhere, I built one to prove that my network could be opened from a good distance to some firends of mine, they were very much on the wireless bandwagon up to that point. I used Netstumbler and the WEP breaker (forgot the name), took all of about 30 seconds total with the defaults setup on the WAP, similar to most home/a lot of business installs. Good humor, but I don't think I like the idea of opening the door of my house and hanging out a sign that says, "Come on in and take whatever you want". I agree with Shipley, the Wireless LANS need to be (at a minimum) stuck on a DMZ and the clients forced to tunnel back through the firewall to that area with either a VPN or Crytpo tunneling of some other sort. I just don't see any use for them until I can be guaranteed the same security as I am with my wired LAN, not perfect, but much safer. Til then, I can still run cable...


loadc